Fodor's may use your email address to send you relevant information on site updates, account changes, and offers. For more information about your privacy and protection, please review our full Privacy Policy.

Pls help Stu Dudley and other France experts with my itinerary for 13 days

Hello everyone! Please share your tips and suggestions for my trip. This is what I have so far.

France Itinerary

Sun-29ARRIVE PARIS

Mon-30PARIS some museums are closed

Tue-01PARIS some museums are closed, labor day

Wed-02PARIS

Thu-03PARIS

Fri-04LEAVE FR PARIS AND HEAD FOR DORDOGNE

Sat-05DORDOGNE

Sun-06DORDOGNE

Mon-O7DORDOGNE

Tue-08 (ve day) LEAVE FROM DORDOGNE AND HEAD FOR MOUGINS

Wed-09 VISIT AIX EN PROVENCE ( by car or by train?)

Thu-10 VISIT FR RIVIERA

Fri-11 VISIT FR RIVIERA

Sat-12 FLIGHT BACK TO US

This is how I divided our days. It will be me, my husband, my parents and my kids (7 and 9). It will be our first time. Because i found a great deal for accomodations in mougins, I already booked it for seven days which I cannot change but then I started finding out about Dordogne from everyone here and so I inserted that between my trip to Paris and Cote d Azur. Now I've not booked my Paris accomodations yet coz I'm not exactly sure how many day I should take away from Paris to add to Dordogne. Any thoughts on this?

Also was thinking of taking tgv between the three. Can I rely on tgv travel on those days? Concerned that trains or buses might be scant on some days and holiday ( such as may 8). Once in Dordogne, we're planning on renting a car, also same in cote d azur. I'm not used to taking buses so I thought car might be easier and may not be so bad as far as traffic during these dates. When I say, car, I meant van, to accomodate all of us.

Thanks Judy =). I was thinking of this also since it's our first time in france ( and europe). But the pictures of Dordogne are just so beautiful. I've been to big cities here in the U.S and I long to visit Fairytale like places. Amusement parks that have man built european looking villages such as those in disney world and the Harry Potter town in Univeral Studios are the closest I got to.

I know the arrival and departure on each town will significantly reduce sightseeing time, but given what I just said, do u guys think I should visit Dordogne (sarlat in particular) for even just a day or two? Just so I can have a look at it and have something I can plan on going back to ( sooner than later!) ?

I would skip the Dordogne also. You'll have to shortchange your stay in Paris or the Dordogne or the Côte d'Azur if you don't, and while I'm not much of a Côte d'Azur fan and a couple of days less there wouldn't bother me; fewer days in Paris or the Dordogne would be a bummer for me. Just a day or two in Sarlat would be a crying shame. Save the Dordogne for another trip.

BTW, even if you go ahead with this plan, you can't do TGVs for most legs of it.

Looks like it's unanimous. And you all make sense. Amwosu- you are so right about 3 gen, 3 ppl and jetlag. I knew this ... guess I needed to hear someone tell me. Ok, so when I'm in Mougins, will renting a van instead of taking buses be ok to get around during this season?

I read aix en provence is about 1 1/2 hr dr away, will day trips be ok?

OR...

Can u guys recommend places ( a town or two) we can visit in provence in 2-3 days ( maybe we can spend a night or two in one of the towns there so we wont waste time going back and forth to mougins.

Not "some museums will close" on Labor day - ALL museums will close. As will just about everything else. You might find some things open on l'Isle St Louis. We like to just 'wander around" on days when things are closed - especially along the quays.

So here's what i have so far
April 29 - may 5 Paris
May 5 - travel to Mougins
May 5 - May 11 staying at Mougins visiting cote d azur
May 12 - Fly back to US from Nice

I was born in the Phillipines and also grew up in Southern Cali, also been to Hawaii so I've done a lot of beaches already. None of us are really into water sports altho I'd like to take the kids to the beach to play on the sand ( water might be too cold) Main reason why this place is in my itinerary is because I wanted to see the famous nice, cannes, st tropez, monaco, monte carlo etc .... and I'm thinking with a van we can do this 3-4 days. That's why I'm hoping I can visit aix de Provence or other towns you might suggest. We're very used to driving around, in southern calif it's normal to travel 2 hrs one way what with all the traffic there, to get to the places we want to visit.

Do you have my Cote d'Azur itinerary??? Plenty of suggestions in there. I grew up in So Calif (San Gabriel/Laguna Beach) so I know what "driving" is. But I gave up on that a long time ago & now a long drive is 1 1/2 hrs. E-mail me at StuDudley@aol.com if you would like a copy of my itinerary.